In the just-concluded 2025, the global new shipbuilding market as a whole cooled down, but the orders for new container ships once again set a new historical record. Chinese shipyards have continued to expand their advantages, securing over 70% of global orders and becoming the absolute players in the container ship construction sector.
According to Clarkson's data, global new ship orders in 2025 will decline by 27% compared to the peak level in 2024, but have already exceeded the average order level from 2021 to 2023. Container ships remain the most eye-catching sector, with new orders for 644 vessels totaling 4.759 million TEUs throughout the year, surpassing the record of 4.674 million TEUs set for the entire year of 2024 and setting a new historical high. The total investment in new container ships in 2025 further increased to 59.364 billion US dollars (approximately 415.183 billion yuan), slightly higher than 58.568 billion US dollars in 2024.
Chinese shipbuilding enterprises continue to lead the global container ship construction market, with particularly outstanding performance. According to Clarkson's statistics as of December 30, 2025, almost all new container ship orders in 2025 were taken on by Chinese and South Korean shipyards. Among them, Chinese shipyards signed new orders for 518 vessels, approximately 3.446 million TEUs, with a market share as high as 72%. South Korean shipyards have newly signed orders for 105 vessels with a capacity of 1.247 million TEUs, accounting for approximately 26% of the market share.
The top 10 shipyards for new container ship orders in 2025
Among the top 10 single shipyards in terms of new container ship orders signed in 2025, 7 are from China. Among them, Zhoushan Changhong International ranked first globally with an order volume of 46 vessels totaling 523,000 TEUs, outperforming South Korea's HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (49 vessels totaling 503,000 TEUs). Hanwha Marine Engineering of South Korea ranked third, with orders for 17 vessels totaling 307,000 TEUs. Hengli Heavy Industry and Guangzhou Shipyard International ranked fourth and fifth respectively, with order volumes of 28 vessels totaling 279,000 TEUs and 17 vessels totaling 260,000 TEUs.
South Korea's HD Hyundai Sanhu ranked sixth, with 24 orders totaling approximately 255,000 TEUs. The seventh to tenth places are all occupied by Chinese shipyards, namely Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co., LTD. Tianjin (14 vessels, 249,000 TEUs), Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding (18 vessels, 229,000 TEUs), Jiangnan Shipbuilding (12 vessels, 216,000 TEUs), and Dalian COSCO Shipping Kawasaki (9 vessels, 167,000 TEUs).
Top 10 shipyards in terms of container ship orders on hand
Among the top 10 single shipyards in terms of orders on hand, 8 are from China. Among them, the top four spots are all occupied by Chinese shipbuilding enterprises, namely Zhoushan Changhong International (70 vessels, 903,000 TEUs), NCS Shipbuilding (66 vessels, 825,000 TEUs), Xinyangzi Shipbuilding (92 vessels, 762,000 TEUs), and Hengli Heavy Industry (48 vessels, 731,000 TEUs). HD Hyundai Heavy Industries ranks fifth, with 67 vessels and 697,000 TEUs of orders in hand. Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding ranked sixth, with a total of 48 vessels and 586,000 TEUs of orders on hand. HD Hyundai Sanhu, ranked seventh, has 48 vessels with 552,000 TEUs on hand. The eighth to tenth places are Yangzi Xinfu (28 vessels, approximately 538,000 TEUs), Jiangnan Shipbuilding (29 vessels, 448,000 TEUs), and Hudong-Zhonghua (37 vessels, 444,000 TEUs), respectively.
The top 10 shipowners in terms of new container ship orders signed in 2025
From the perspective of booking shipowners, the expansion of their own fleets by shipping companies is the main reason driving the investment boom in container ships. Among the top 10 shipowners in terms of new orders signed in 2025, 7 are major shipping companies with leading capacity. They are Mediterranean Shipping Company (39 vessels, 776,000 TEUs) ranked first, CMA CGM (34 vessels, approximately 652,000 TEUs) ranked second, Evergreen Marine (25 vessels, approximately 460,000 TEUs) ranked third, COSCO Shipping Group (14 vessels, approximately 259,000 TEUs) ranked fourth, and Wan Hai Line (22 vessels, approximately 186,000 TEUs) ranked seventh U), HMM (12 vessels, approximately 159,000 TEUs), ranked eighth, and Ocean Network Express
(approximately 140,000 TEUs), ranked ninth, all rank among the top 11 globally in terms of operational fleet capacity.
In addition, Cardiff Marine, Seaspan and Eastern Pacific Shipping (EPS), as tonnage providers, also ordered a considerable number of container ships last year. Among them, Cardiff Marine ordered 18 205,000 TEU container ships last year, ranking fifth globally in terms of order volume. All of these 18 ships were 11,440 TEU dual-fuel LNG-powered vessels built by Changhong International, and 12 of them will be leased to ZIM Shipping of Israel.
Seaspan ordered 20 container ships of approximately 200,000 TEU last year, ranking sixth globally in terms of order volume. Among them, six 11,400 TEU container ships built by Hudong-Zhonghua will be leased to COSCO Shipping Lines, and 12 9,040 TEU ships jointly built by Hudong-Zhonghua and Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding will be leased to Orient Overseas Container Line. Last year, Singapore's EPS ordered 41 container ships of approximately 138,000 TEU, mainly small and medium-sized vessels, ranking tenth globally in terms of order volume. Among them, 12 1,800 TEU feeder ships built by Fujian Southeast Shipbuilding will be leased to CMA CGM.
The top 10 container ship order holders in 2025
Among the top 10 container ship order holders, 8 are shipping companies. They are Mediterranean Shipping Company (113 vessels, 2.119 million TEUs) ranked first, CMA CGM (80 vessels, 1.393 million TEUs) ranked second, Evergreen Marine (54 vessels, 842,000 TEUs) ranked third, COSCO Shipping Group (45 vessels, 813,000 TEUs) ranked fourth, and Ocean Connected Shipping (49 vessels, 62.7 million TEUs) ranked sixth Maersk ranked eighth (27 vessels, 371,000 TEU), Wan Hai Line ranked ninth (36 vessels, 359,000 TEU), and Hapag-Lloyd ranked tenth (32 vessels, 348,000 TEU). The other two are tonnage providers, namely Seaspan (59 vessels, 700,000 TEU), ranked fifth, and EPS (57 vessels, 388,000 TEU), ranked seventh.
The persistently high order volume has raised concerns in the industry about an overcapacity in the future market. Filipe Gouveia, the general manager of shipping analysis at the Baltic International Shipping Council (BIMCO), pointed out that currently, the proportion of container ship orders in the existing fleet has reached as high as 33%, and expressed concerns about the large-scale new capacity that is about to be delivered in a concentrated manner.
Gouveia said, "From the perspective of the development of supply and demand balance, the huge scale of container ship orders on hand is one of the factors we are most concerned about, especially when the Red Sea/Suez Canal route resumes normal operation, the container shipping sector will face the greatest risk of demand decline." He further predicted that the growth of container shipping market capacity would continue to outpace the growth of demand over the next five years.
Last year, with the concentrated delivery of new ships ordered during the 2021-2022 order boom, the number of container ships in the fleet exceeded 7,000 for the first time in November. It was only 37 months after the container ship fleet reached the milestone of 6,000 in September 2022, setting a record for the fastest growth rate in history. Looking ahead, Clarkson predicts that the container ship fleet will rapidly exceed the 8,000 mark in the coming years.